Any recommendations for Disney resturants?

Vacation is booked, now it looks like I should make some reservations. Preferably ones that only "cost" one meal credit or whaever it's called. Finances are tight just financing this trip. Wife and I are up for anything... so long as the (PITA) kids can grab a burger or chicken fingers. LOL

Depends on the Park, I'd say. There are a lot of nice sitdown restaurants (especially in Epcot, we did Nine Dragons for Chinese), but really Disney had good food all over. Do you want fine dining, or just table service?

Fine dining costs at least 2 table service credits, though it is totally worth it, I don't know if I'd worry about it with kids.

I'd suggest Tony's Town Square at Magic Kingdom, it's a little Italian place that is themed to Lady and the Tramp. Their food is great, and they have kid friendly meals. It's only 1 table service credit.

For Epcot, I'd do Chefs de France (one sit down credit). They have kid friendly stuff, and they bring Remy the Rat out on a little cart and he interacts with everyone. You might want to avoid Le Celier (as good as it is, it's really busy, and is now 2 table service credits) and Coral Reef because it's centered around fish, though you certainly can get chicken there.

For counter service, you absolutely cannot beat Seasons inside the Land at Epcot. You get a lot of food for your credits, and there's an extremely wide selection. not to mention it's all made we fresh ingredients grown right there.

Le Cellier is two now? I wonder if that's more to curb the long reservation lead time.

I assume that's the case. Is it safe to say that the introduction of the Disney Dining Plan, particularly when included in the hotel packages, is the main contributor to Le Cellier's somewhat rapid rise in popularity over the past few years?

Le Cellier is only two table service credits for dinner. At lunch it is still one credit. The menu and portions are the same. Although it is just as hard to get a reservation.

Is this the kid's first trip? Planning to get autographs?

Do some character meals. You get to unwind, cool down in the air conditioning, and the characters come to you for autographs and pictures instead of you spending time in line to see them.

Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary is our favorite featuring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. That would be followed closely by the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore.

allears.net has menus and character details for all the restaraunts on Disney property, so you can decide what places serve food you and the kids will eat.

If you're interested in seeing a show, do the Hawaiian Luau thing at the Polynesian. It's two credits, but you also get the show, it's good food and all-you-can-eat, and your alcohol is also included.

Also, the Whispering Canyon is a lot of fun for kids and they have some decent food. You also get a "free" boat ride from the Magic Kingdom and can catch the light show on the water from the docks.

Nine Dragons. Dumplings and honey sesame chicken FTW!

This would be the kids first trip, but they're older and not really concerned with seeing characters. Shows would be cool but I think we're mainly interested in getting some decent food for 1 credit. Thanks for the tips.

I'm not really going to worry about fine dining this trip, my kids dont really do fine dining.

My must eat at list:

1. Ohana @Polyneasean: Half brazillian steak house, half luau (no show.)

2. Whispering Canyon Cafe @Wilderness Lodge: BBQ skillet is amazing

3. Le Cellier (for lunch)

4. Crystal Palace Breakfast Buffet w/Pooh: Four words: Fried Cinnamon French Toast, its amazing and only found here. As a bonus, schedule your meal before the MK opens for the day and you get to walk down an empty Main Street and snag a family picture in front of the Castle with no one in the background.

It is a 2-charge meal, but Jiko's at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is fantastic. But that one is one that has to be booked way in advance. I still sometimes think of that meal and my mouth waters. Sorta fancy for kids though...

We have been to every sit down at Epcot with the exception of Mexico, Norway and one of the Japanese places. Never had a bad meal. Some were better then others, but all were very good. One of our favorites was the Biergarten.

Just got back and recommend the following.

Via Napoli was awesome. Was just in Napoli and the pizza here was authentic and delicious. Highly recommend this place if you like wood oven pizza.

Also ate at Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Lodge which was good. Lots of good vegetarian options and a view of some animals if you're lucky.

We took our kids to Disney for their first trip two years ago. They were too old for characters and didn't really have much of an interest in them when they were younger. Characters meant more to my wife and me. None of us had any interest in fine dining. We had two vegetarians in our group.

Disney does dining very well. All of the restaurants we went to were very good. Reservation system worked very well. Never waited more than 5 minutes for our table (and most times we were seated within a minute of walking in). As someone else noted, I would check out the menus online and see what places most appeal to your family and will work with whatever plans you have in place in terms of parks that you will be visiting on what day. My wife and kids were in charge of that and had fun planning.

You could also always give them a call at 1-800-WDW-DINE and ask for recommendations. They're really good about helping out on that.

That's what I was trying to tell my wife, I think you need to come up with an intinerary then fit the dining into that. She think's I'm being too much like Clark Griswold going after the worlds 3rd largest ball of string

When planning Disney dining, you need to be Clark Griswold. There is little to no chance of getting a walk-in meal at some of those restaurants. Le Cellier, for instance, books up, solid, 180 days in advance.

So true. While we were waiting for our table at Le Cellier someone came up and asked how long the wait was? The host told him 180 days and the guy got irate thinking the guy was being rude. I told him that Le Cellier routinely books 6 months in advance. The only place that I have heard that you can sometimes get a walk up is Biergarten, but even then that is only on a slow day.

When at Disney, you have to adapt to the Disney way of doing things. If you try to do it "your" way, you will be fighting it your entire trip. When you go with it, most everything turns magical.

When we went in February 2009, we got a same-day reservation for Le Cellier by walking in and asking if they had availability.

We're cool like that. ;)